(^10 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 



AN ADDEESS 



DELIVERED BY 



JOHN H. B. LATROBE, 



OF MARYLAND, 

AT THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE NEW YORK 

STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY, HELD IN 

METROPOLITAN HALL, 

MAY 13TH, 1853. 



BALTIMORE: 
PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY. 

1852. 



■LSI,/ 



"I have often, Mr. President, expressed the opinion, that over slavery, as 
it exists in the States, this Government lias no control wliatever. It is entirely 
and exclusively a State concern. And, while it is tlius clear that Congress has 
no direct powder over tlie subject, it is our duty to take care that the authority of 
this Government is not brought to bear upon it by any indirect interference what- 
ever. It must be left to the States, to the course of things, and to those causes 
over which this Government has no control. All this, in my opinion, is in the 
clear line of our duty." — Webster, before the Senate, March 16, 1836. 

^o1 



TO DOCTOR JAMES HALL. 

My Dear Doctor: 

In dedicating to you this revised publication of 
my address in New York, I wish to testify my sense of 
the great services you have rendered to Colonization. As 
the founder and first governor of the Maryland Colony at 
Cape Palmas, whose wise counsels and determined cour- ; 
age ga-"e it the firm foundation on which it rests, and as 
the zealous and devoted friend, who, in this country, has 
since devoted his talents and his unequalled experience 
to promote its interests, your claims to consideration are 
known to no one better than to myself, as President of 
the Society, which, as yet, controls it. When, to this is 
added, the inducement of personal friendship, the present 
dedication will not be wondered at. 

The views contained in the following pages were 
suggested by general reasoning, some twenty years ago, 
and have, in the interval, been more than once pro- 
claimed and acted upon : but, it was not until the 
seventh census, that it was seen, how fully they were 
sustained by the best of all testimony, then, for the 
first time, afforded, to the same extent. . 

A leading object of the address was to place Coloni- j 
zation and Abolition in w^hat were believed to be their S 



DEDICATION. 

true relations towards each other, and to the objects at \ 
which their friends, respectively, were aiming. That j 
this should be done in good temper, and fairly, was, of | 
course, important : and although, as a Southern man, I I 
am, certainly, fully imbued with what is known as " the \ 
Southern feeling," on this subject, it is hoped, that you J 
will find, that, in this revision of my speech, I have | 
offended against no canon of good taste, or indulged in j 
more than a proper latitude of argument. That there ; 
are many, very many, among the so-called abolitionists, ; 
who believe, that they are laboring, in the best way, to | 
promote the best interests of the colored race in the | 
United States, is willingly conceded. Such persons ; 
must always be open to conviction ; and I would avoid ; 
the use of a phrase or a word, which could, by irritating | 
them, prevent their appreciating, at its true value, what- < 
ever of fact or argument is contained in the following \ 
address. There are others, again, to whom abolition has i 
its political, as well as its philanthropical, attractions, — the ^ 
former constituting its chief interest. But the most of \ 
these, even, I believe, would hesitate in their uses of \ 
abolition, if they could be satisfied that they were peril- 
ing the welfare, if not the very existence, of an entire j 
people, by the violence and bitterness of their course, \ 

\ 

Renewing the expression of my respect and regard, l 

I am, my dear Doctor, most truly yours, 5 

JOHN H. B. LATROBE. | 

Baltimore, June 27, 1852. { 



40 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 



MR. PRESIDENT: 

I HAVE left a distant home and a sick bed, | 

that I might witness the honor here paid, this evening, \ 

to Colonization. It is now upwards of thirty years, | 

since, as a boy, I was accidentally present, for the first | 

time, at a Colonization meeting; not in a hall like this, j 

where the blaze of a thousand lamps, reflected from | 

frescoed walls, turns night to day, but in an ancient \ 

Presbyterian church, where a few dip candles, in tin \ 
sconces, hung here and there, shone feebly upon a body 

of men, more brilliant in talent than great in numbers, j 
who had met to discuss the first expedition to Africa. 
This was in Georgetown, then little more than a vil- 

la2:e in the District of Columbia. And now, here, in | 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

the throbbing heart of our country, Colonization holds 
its annual meetings, and takes high rank among the 
most important of the philanthropic and religious 
associations of the day. 

The object of the Society, as declared by its foun- 
ders, was, and has always been, " the removal of the 
free colored people of the United States, with their 
own consent, to Africa." At first, men scouted at 
the insignificance of the means by which such a result 
was proposed to be accomplished; and few, who lent 
their pecuniary aid, had much faith in the scheme. 
While the names of Bible Society, Tract Society, 
Missionary Society, and, later, Temperance Society, 
attracted the support of their respective friends to 
objects which the names explained, the name. Coloni- 
zation Society, seemed to convey no meaning, which 
the contributors agreed about, as a reason for helping 
to set it forward. Some gave money, as though it 
were a missionary enterprise. Some gave in view of 
affecting the slave trade. Some gave, that slaves 
might be made more valuable, when the free blacks 
were removed from contact with them. Some gave, 
on the other hand, in the hope, that, somehow or 
other, the abolition of slavery would be promoted by 
Colonization. Some gave with purely commercial 
views : and some gave, because others gave, and 



i COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

I because they had a vague idea that good might come 
j of it. Want of faith in the primary object was thus 
> compensated, pecuniarily, by the interest felt in the 
I secondary considerations connected with it. It is 
j true, the means thus obtained were, after all, very in- 
I considerable; but they were sufficient. 
I Had Colonization, in 1818, possessed the present 

I income of the Bible Society, what could it have done 
\ with it ? It was totally destitute of all experience in 
I its work. Its first settlement, at Sherbro, had proved 
I a failure. Had ampler means authorized an establish- 
1 ment there on a larger scale, the failure would have 
I been more conspicuous and appalling. But money 
I could not have procured more emigrants than then 
I came forward. Money could not have qualified the 
I first emigrants to assume, at once, the offices of a free 
government. Money could not have imparted that 
acquaintance with the diseases of the climate, which 
it took years of experience, afterwards, to obtain. 
What was wanting, far more than money, was the 
great want of our countrymen, patience. A colony, 
like a fire, is to be built up by degrees. A few coals, 
fed at first, with shavings, then with light wood, then 
with small sticks, then with larger, produce, at last, a 
flame which may consume a forest. So, in planting a 
Colony. The first emigrants should be few and well 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION, 

selected; additions, of suitable materials, should be 
made cautiously, and at intervals, permitting each ship- 
load to become permanently established before the 
arrival of another ; until, the strength of the community 
being sufficiently assured, an ad libitum emigration to it 
might be permitted. Necessity compelled the Coloni- 
zation Society to pursue this prudent plan; to which 
is to be attributed, in a good degree, a success un- 
paralleled in the annals of Colonization throughout the 
world. Had the Society's means corresponded to its 
eagerness, the Colony might have been smothered 
with emigrants, for whom it was not prepared, — as 
green logs will put out the newly made fire. All this 
is appreciated now. It was very far from being ap- 
preciated at the time. 

At last, and after many years. Colonization suc- 
ceeded in its experiment ; and, as it grew to be ad- 
mitted, that a Colony of free colored people from the ' 
United States, capable of self-government, self-support 
and self-defence, had been established on the Coast of 
Africa, Colonizationists ceased to be looked upon as 
fanatics or enthusiasts; and the enquiry came to be 
common, as to the practical effect of what had thus 
been accomplished, and what were to be the in- 
fluences exercised upon many interests by the Re- 
public of Liberia. 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 
The Republic of Liberia!* The name alone 
speaks volumes. The few Colonists-uneducated 
men— many of them just released from slavery— who 
landed upon Sherbro Island,— who removed to Cape 
Montserrado,-where, having been joined by others, 
not a whit more learned than themselves, or more 
experienced in the ways of freedom, they did battle 
with the natives unto victory, against overwhelming 
odds,— these Colonists, protected from on High, have 

*The name of Liberia was g-iven to the Colonies on the Coast of 
Africa by the late General Robert Goodloe Harper, one of the earliest 
most active and most distinguished friends of Colonization. In 1S21 
Doctor Eh Ayres, an agent of the American Colonization Society, re- 
turned from the Coast, where, in conjunction with Commodore Stock- 
ton,-now senator from New Jersey in the United States Senate,-he 
had purchased the territory at Cape Montserrado, now Monrovia, from 
the natives. He was a frequent visitor at General Harper's. On one 
occasion, when Dr. Ayres was describing the localities about the Cape 
General Harper suggested that the speaker, then a student of law in 
his office, should attempt, under Dr. Ayres' instructions, to make a map 
of the newly acquired territory. This was done; and the map was 
given to the engraver, who returned a proof sheet, that the names 
might be added. It was agreed that this should be the work of Gene- 
ral Harper and the map maker, each exercising his ingenuity alter- 
nately. General Harper naming the territory. Various names were 
suggested, and Freedonia was on the point of being adopted; when 
General Harper said, "can nothing be made of Liber, a free man '" 
and, after several attempts to render the word euphonious, "Liberia" 
was hit upon and adopted. This name being subsequently approved 
by the American Colonization Society, has ever since been retained as 
descriptive of the entire country occupied by the Colonies from the 
J Umted States : thus, when the State of Maryland founded a Colony 
j there, it was called " Maryland in Liberia." 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 



grown to be a Republic ; — recognized, even where not | 
formally acknowledged, as one among the family of 
civilized nations. It has its treaties with Europe. 
England has received its President with the distinc- | 
lion due to the head of an independent State, and ; 
sent him to Monrovia, on his return from London, iu 
a vessel of war, which she presented to the infant | 
government. Its flag is known and respected. Its < 
commerce is increasing : its laws are wise and well | 
administered: its people live in obedience to them: \ 
religion is respected : education thrives : want is un- ! 
known to hands willing to labor; and the rewards of j 
labor, integrity and talent, in Liberia, as elsewhere, f 
are wealth and honor. ! 

It is true, that it has taken time to produce these | 
results ; and the unfriends of the cause refer to the \ 
slow growth of the Colony, as an argument against | 
the efficiency of the scheme. But they do not recollect 
the fact, that the Colonies of Liberia are now much 
further advanced, in permanent prosperity, than were 
the Colonies of this country, at the end of the same 
number of years. The proper view of the subject, in 
this connection, is that taken by the Legislature of 
Maryland, at its recent session, in the following 
extract from the Report of its Committee on Colored 
Population. 



\ COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. | 

I "The committee deem it only proper to say, that | 

1 they do not look upon the numbers of emigrants, that 
i have been transported to Africa by the State Society, \ 
\ as, by any means, the proper standard by which to 
\ estimate the success of Colonization. The true stan- 
i dard is the condition and capacity of the Colony in \ 

view of the purposes for which it was established. 
i Does it afford a safe and comfortable home, in a con- 
I genial climate, to which the free people of color may 
emigrate, when circumstances shall make it their in- 
terest to do so, — presently, at the expense of the \ 
State and others, — hereafter, as commerce grows up j 
between the two countries, at their own expense, as | 
Irish and German emigrants now come to America ? ^ 
If this question can be satisfactorily answered, and j 
the committee believe that it can be, the Society has \ 
done all that could be reasonably required of it, and 
has fulfilled, so far, the purpose of its existence." 

Since the successful results on the Coast of Africa, 
the interest felt in Colonization, in its relations "be- 
yond the sea," has, naturally, to some extent dimin- 
ished. Its home relations, however, have been 
gradually increasing in importance. They occupy 
now a large share of the public mind; and it is 
in regard to these last, Mr. President, that I propose 
more particularly to speak. 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

The persons who take the most active interest in 
all questions connected with the colored population, 
in a philanthropic point of view, are the colonization- 
ists and the abolitionists. The relations which they 
occupy towards each other are not without their 
interest. A good many rough passages have doubt- 
less taken place between them, in which, perhaps, the 
hardest words were those used by the abolitionists. 
These words, however, have done but little mischief; 
and, putting them out of view, it is thought, that the 
colonizationists, as such, have, after all, less cause of 
complaint against their opponents than they have 
sometimes fancied. 

Abolition aims at the emancipation of the slaves 
without regard to circumstances. The ground of its 
action is, that slavery is a sin of itself, which no 
circumstances can ever justify. Colonization, without 
meddling, at all, with this vexed question, has to do, 
only, wdth the removal of the free people of color, 
and emancipated slaves, of the United States, with their 
own consent, to Africa. Apparently, there is no 
occasion for collision between the two. Abolition 
might succeed in freeing every slave in America, and 
Colonization still exist, to remove every one, so freed, 
to Liberia. But Colonization gives, as reasons for its 
existence, — that, amalgamation being out of the ques- 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 
tion, the two races, of free whites and free blacks, can 
never enjoy social and political equality in the same 
land:* that the well-being of both, and especially the 
freedom and happiness of the latter, require their sepa- 
ration : that an unexampled immigration of whites 
from Europe, and a rapidly increasing native white 
population, are gradually elbowing the free colored 
race, which is the weakest, out of their accustomed 
employments : that none other are open to them; that 
I this state of things is growing, and must grow, worse 
I and worse,-and that the day will arrive, when it will 
I be apparent to the free colored people, that, with them, 
starvation, or the bitterest oppression, has no alterna' 
I tive but emigration. Against this day, and acting 
I on these convictions. Colonization has established the 
I Colonies in Africa, by the slow process that has been 
I described, as a refuge and a home for those, whose 
I future in America is dark and hopeless. Abolition, 
I denying all these premises, and insisting that emanci- 
I pation on the spot, here to remain, is perfectly consis- 

I * All history shews that two races, which cannot amalg-amate by 

|ntermarr:age, can exist in the same land in no other relation than 
I that of master and slave, or, where both are nominally free, in that 
I of the oppressor and the oppressed. The cases of the Moors and 
Spaniards-Saxons and Normans-An^lo-Saxons and American In- 
dians-Anglo-Saxons and East Indians-are in point. See ''Thoughts 
Concern.ng Domestic Slavery," by John L. Carey, for a full discus:ion 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

tent with the happiness of the blacks, finds itself the 
antagonist of Colonization, rather on account of the 
reasons for action, than of the action itself, of the lat- 
ter. It is the active antagonist, too ; because, if it is 
to succeed in its views in regard to the colored popula- 
tion, it must do so by means of agitation ; while time 
alone, without agitation, must determine the success 
of the scheme of Colonization. A people cannot be 
argued into a change of its habitation: while argu- 
ment may be sufficient to induce a master to manumit 
his slaves, or a Legislature to adopt measures for pros- 
pective emancipation. Hence, while Colonization, 
relying upon the force of circumstances, over which 
it has no control, to shew the free blacks that their 
true interests must be promoted by removal, has 
remained comparatively passive, — Abolition has ever 
been its active assailant; and, with all the means at its 
command, has encouraged agitation in regard to every 
matter connected with the social and political relations 
of our colored population. 

If there is error in these propositions concerning 
abolition, it proceeds from no willingness to state the 
case unfairly. There is no reason for other than the 
most candid view of the matter; for, practically, abo- 
lition has been one of the most efficient auxiliaries 
that Colonization has had; unintentionally, of course: 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

but there can be no doubt about the fact. Let me 
explain. 

Modern abolition is, now, rather more than twenty 
years old. Its activity preceded, somewhat, the 
Southampton massacre. The Colony at Monrovia had 
then been founded some twelve years, was assuming a 
permanent character, and acquiring a fair reputation 
among the free people of color. In 1832, the State 
Society, in JMaryland, found no difficulty in obtaining, 
in one or two counties, one hundred and fifty emi- 
grants for its first expedition, by the Lafayette, under 
the law giving ten thousand dollars, annually, to the 
cause. The American Colonization Society had as 
many applicants as they could obtain means to send to 
Africa. This period was a critical one for Coloniza- 
tion. Had the supply of emigrants continued, they 
would have been shipped, and great mischief would 
have been done. The Colonies were no\ yet ready for 
the accessions to their numbers that would have gone 
forward. We see this now: we were blind to it then. 
They had not, yet, served a long enough apprentice- 
ship to qualify their people to act as their own rulers. 
Self-government had not yet become a matter of 
course to them. They stiU required white men at the 
head of afl^airs. The people themselves distrusted 
those of their own color as their chief magistrates. 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

They were, in fact, in a transition state. To have 
crowded them, at this time, with such emigrants as 
would have been procured, — comparatively ignorant 
and inexperienced, — might have postponed for a long, 
long time, their political independence, if it had not 
periled the whole scheme. And yet, the impatience 
of Colonization would have permitted the crowd to 
sail. But, thanks to abolition, the supply of emigrants 
was suddenly cut off, and the gristle of the Colonies 
had time given to it to harden into the bones and 
sinews of manhood. The agents of abolition filled 
the minds of the ignorant of the colored people, — and 
they were the mass, — with a dread of Africa, its cli- 
mate, deserts, serpents and wild beasts. Their prom- 
ises of social and political equality with the whites, in 
the United States, won over the intelligent and ambi- 
tious: and thus, although there was money in abun- 
dance, yet but few emigrants were forthcoming. In 
Maryland, to which my experience more particularly 
relates, it was only necessary for a colored man to 
declare publicly his intention of going to Liberia, to 
make it sure that he would not go. He at once 
became a mark for the agents of the abolitionists; and 
they changed his purpose in nine cases out of ten. As 
already shewn, the end of all this was for our good : 
and this is the first of our obligations to abolition. 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

Again, although the colonizationists were satisfied 
that the two races could not amalgamate, and must 
therefore separate, sooner or later, yet this was, by no 
means, the universal belief. It was, therefore, most 
important, that this fact, upon whose truth Coloniza- 
tion rested, should be ascertained unto demonstration. 
No where could this be done so well as in the free 
States, in which the abolitionists were numerous, 
where the laws had already given the free blacks the 
broadest political rights, and where the feeling against 
slavery, even among those who did not rank as aboli- 
tionists, was, unquestionably, strong. The experiment 
of establishing a social, as well as political equahty, of 
destroying prejudices as they interfered with a general 
amalgamation, was accordingly tried, here, at the 
North, under the most favorable circumstances. Up to 
the present time, it is persevered in. That it has utterly 
failed, will not be denied. White and colored orators 
have occupied the same platform at anniversary meet- 
ings; white and colored listeners have been seated, 
promiscuously on the benches before them ; but this is 
all, that efforts, sincerely and zealously made, have 
been able to accomplish. It is to the abohtionist, 
therefore, that the colonizationist owes the demonstra- 
tion of the truth of the conviction upon which he has 
been acting— that the two races, forever socially sepa- 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 



rated by the prejudices of caste, must separate in fact, 
if they would severally enjoy the same measure of 
social and political freedom. And this is the second 
of our obligations to abolition. 

But the greatest of the obligations, which abolition 
has conferred upon Colonization, has resulted from 
the agitation, to which reference has been already 
made. This has led men to look, full in the face, the 
difficulties involved in the existence, in a land, whose 
population increases as rapidly as ours does, of two 
free races whose amalgamation is impossible ; between 
whom exist all the prejudices of caste ; and the masses 
of both of which are fast becoming competitors for 
bread in all the avenues of labor. The solution of the 
problem, which these difficulties present, is the great 
question of the day ; and the abolitionists have made 
it so. They propose to solve it by emancipating the 
slaves, wherever held, and changing the hearts and 
prejudices of the whites, until color ceases to be a 
mark of caste, and caste ceases to have an existence. 
These two conditions are inseparable; otherwise the 
emancipated slaves, unprotected by owners, and at 
the mercy of a class, superior in numbers, holding 
the political power, and influenced by prejudices made 
active by daily competition for employment, — would, 
evidently, be far worse off than they were before. The 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

colonizationists propose to solve it, leaving hearts and 
prejudices as they are, by opening an outlet, through 
which, when the free colored people, themselves, shall 
feel the necessity of removal, they may emigrate to a 
home as free as this is, to a climate as congenial to 
them, to a Republic, on the model of that which they 
leave, and the mission of which in Africa seems to be 
the fulfilment of prophecy, and the development of 
the great problem of human progress. Which of 
these solutions finds most favor with the public, can- 
not, now, well be questioned. Colonization is in 
the ascendant. Its resources have increased ; state 
after state is becoming a contributor to its treasury ; 
its emigrants have multiplied ; the proposition of 
ocean steamers, to facilitate its operations, has been 
kindly entertained in Congress; and multitudes of 
the free colored people are now among the warmest 
of its advocates. That this happy change has come 
over the public mind in regard to Colonization, 
is to be attributed, mainly, to the full discussion 
which the abolition excitement has provoked, even 
unto the shaking of the Union to its centre. And 
this is the third of our obligations to Abolition, and 
the greatest. 

Truly, then, Mr. President, may it be said, that 
Colonization, so to call the Society here assembled, 



i 

COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. \ 

and other societies affiliated with it, has no cause to 
complain of Abolition. 

But, there are those, sir, who have bitter wrongs j 
to lay at its door. They are black men, however, not | 
white men. Abolition has been the black man's curse. \ 
The word is a harsh one, certainly; but is the only one \ 
that seems to convey the idea produced by the practi- 
cal workings ot abolition upon the condition of the 
black man, slave and free, in the slaveholding States. 
A Marylander myself, marrying in Mississippi, my 
experience has been acquired in the Middle and in the 
Southern States. Not a slaveholder, having no per- 
sonal interests connected with the institution of sla- 
very, abolition has not done, either to me or my friends, 
a wrong that I should resent. If I know my own 
heart, any feeling of excitement, which I entertain 
upon the subject, grows out of the fact, that I fancy 
myself to be the black man's friend. I am not a paid 
official, either, of Colonization, and never have been. 
I claim, therefore, to speak without undue bias, and 
with a knowledge derived from close observation 
under circumstances favorable to arrive at truth. 

Prior to the year 1830, the relations between the 
whites and the blacks, slave and free, in the slave- 
holding states, especially in the large cities of these 
States, from Baltimore to New Orleans, cannot be bet- 



20 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

ter described than by the single word "kindly." The 
free blacks were ordinarily employed in preference to 
whites, in all those callings in which there was a 
choice between the two. Household servants in cities, 
carters, draymen, coachmen, stevedores, farm-hands, 
other than slaves, were nearly all free blacks. As a 
general ruje the slaves were treated with kindness and 
well provided for. This was the true interest of 
masters, even if they had no better motive. Societies, 
composed of the most respectable citizens, slave- 
holders and non-slave-holders, had long existed, whose 
object was to protect the black man from imposition, 
to promote the fairest trial of petitions for freedom, 
and, generally, to give aid and comfort to a race, 
whose very weakness formed its strongest claim to 
sympathy and protection. In 1830, it was believed 
by many, that a majority of the Legislature of Mary- 
land was in favor of prospective emancipation. 
Modern abolition changed all this. The black laborer 
no longer received the preference, which, at one time, 
seemed to be almost a right. When free black men 
were taught, that they must look to obtaining " from 
the fears, what they could not expect from the justice 
of the whites," the line of separation between the 
two, which had rarely before been noticed, to the in- 
convenience of either, became, at once, a barrier that 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

\ was insurmountable ; and passion, on both sides, built 
! it, day by day, higher and higher. Masters began to 
\ suspect their slaves ; for Southampton had proved that 
j risings could be planned in secret. Jealousy took the 
place of confidence ; harshness of kindness. There 
was some palliation for the slaveholder, who became 
a spy on his people, who curtailed their privileges, 
who threw difficulties in the way of their instruction, 
when he found tracts in circulation among them, which 
counselled massacre as the price of freedom. The old 
abolition societies were trodden down by the modern 
ones ; and have never been, and, from present appear- 
ances, never will be, revived : and, so great was the 
change which the new associations produced, in a very 
few years, in Maryland, that, when the constitution of 
that State was altered, in 1834, slavery was made a 
perpetual institution. Slavery used to be looked at 
through the medium of interest. Abolition made it a 
matter of State pride. Virginia and Kentucky enter- 
tained the same views with Maryland, prior to 1830. 
Abolition did for them what it did for Maryland : and, 
at this day, there are not three States in the Union 
more " Southern," to use a well understood word, in 
their feeling, than the three here named. It is admit- 
ed, that this state of things, so far as temper entered 
into it, may not have been Christian ; yet it was hu- 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

man : and, in calculating the future of its schemes, 
it might have been well for abolition to have recol- 
lected the humanity it had to deal with. 

In this enumeration of the mischievous conse- 
quences of modern abolition, there must not be omitted 
the effect, which it has had in the border slaveholding 
States, of causing sales of slaves to States still further 
South; where the feeling in favor of voluntary emanci- 
pation is much weaker ; where the condition of the 
slaves, if the abolitionists themselves are to be be- 
lieved, is much worse ; and where, their market 
value being greater, they have little or no hope of buy- 
ing their freedom, according to a common custom in 
Maryland certainly, and, it is believed, in Kentucky 
and Virginia also. Every one, at all familiar with the 
state of things in the middle slaveholding States, must 
recollect, that the phrase, " selling to Georgia," — 
Georgia here meaning the remote South — expressed 
the idea of all others the most abhorrent to the slaves. 
But, when abolition became active and efficient, in | 
instigating slaves to run away, and in facilitating their I 
doing so, masters, who could not afford to lose their 1 
slave property, sold it to save its money value. It j 
may be safely said, that, as modern Abolition sue- | 
ceeded in promoting escapes, the negro traders thrived. 
After a somewhat careful enquiry, I am satisfied, that. 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

for every slave that the abolitionists succeeded in 
''running off," two, at the very least, were sold to the 
South, who would not have been sold, but for the 
apprehension that they would be the next to be spirit- 
ed away.* If a runaway were re-captured, he was 
invariably sold: and along with him were sold all who 
were suspected of being of the same mind with him. 
So that, were the account balanced, with a view to 
ascertain how far the abolitionists had promoted free- 
dom by adding to the list of freemen, the result would, 

* From 1S30 to 1850, the abolition era, the slaves in Maryland di- 
minished from 102,994 to 90,368, the difference being- 12,626. From 
1790 to 1810, they had increased from I03,036,theirnumber, very near- 
ly, in 1830, to 111,502, the difference being- 8,466. There being- few, 
if any, " sales out of the State," from 1790 to 1810, the number, 8,466, 
expresses what the natural increase would have been from 1830 to 
1850, with sufficient accuracy. Sales to the South then, during these 
last 20 years, emancipations and escapes, affected the slave population 
to the extent in numbers, of 21,092, which is less than the true amount, 
for the emancipations between 1790 and 1810, are thrown out of view. 
The numbers actually emancipated in the interval between 1832, when 
a record was commenced, and 1852, presently and prospectively, was 
4,319. Deducting for emancipations, become absolute prior to 1852, 
3,000, which is a large allowance, and we have for escapes and South- 
ern sales, 18,092. A large portion of the sales was, doubtless, caused 
by the high prices of cotton, which raised the price of slaves, multi- 
plied negro traders, and induced many owners to buy Southern plan- 
tations and remove their slaves to them. But there are few in Mary- 
land, who have kept their eyes open to events, who will not readily 
admit, that, at least, one-half of the transfers of slaves to the South, 
sometimes with their owners, and sometimes by sales, was materially 
affected, if not actually produced, by the uncertain value of slave 
property, consequent upon abolition, its aids and temptations. 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

most probably, shew, that they had practically thrown 
it backward, through their particular function of aid- 
ing slaves to escape. If this is the fact, as it is be- 
lieved to be, it is but another illustration of the harm, 
which well intentioned ignorance is capable of doing. 
I know, Mr. President, that, as the opinion of an 
individual, all that is here said, in regard to the effect 
of the abolition agitation upon the entire colored 
population, notwithstanding a disclaimer to the con- 
trary, may be looked upon as biased, to use the 
mildest term. It is well, therefore, to corroborate it, 
by testimony which cannot be suspected upon any 
ground ; and I accordingly read from the published 
" Extracts from the minutes of the Yearly Meeting of 
Friends, held at Lombard street, in the city of Balti- 
more, 1842," a few passages having a bearing upon 
what has just been said. 

After expressing, in strong argumentation, but 
most unexceptionably, in spirit and manner, "the tes- 
timony" of "friends" against slavery, and referring to 
the steps taken by " friends" to abate the evil of it, 
the report, which became the action of the Yearly 
Meeting, goes on thus : 

" These movements of friends, influenced wholly 
by kindness and benevolence, produced in the mind of 
the slaveholder, no hostile feeling, either towards us, or 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

towards the colored population of our country. They 
created no dangerous excitement in the public mind, 
ending in tumults and riots ; on the contrary, our ap- 
peals were received with respect and listened to with 
patience. Many were brought to reflect very seriously 
upon the subject, and thousands of slaves were volun- 
tarily liberated. Laws were passed protecting the 
rights of the emancipated, and mitigating the condi- 
tion of those retained in bondage. But how different 
is the present state of things ! What a melancholy 
change has taken place in our country ! Instead of 
laws ameliorating the condition of the colored people, 
we find an alarming disposition to abridge the few 
rights that have been granted to them : instead of a 
general feeling of kindness and commiseration, we 
find in many instances, a disposition of acrimony and 
bitterness engendered against them, without any pro- 
vocation on their part. Even in the free States, great 
violence and many cruelties have been exercised to- 
wards them. The progress of emancipation has been 
checked, and a mutual feeling of jealousy and suspi- 
cion has taken the place of the reciprocal confidence, 
which, to a great extent, had subsisted between the 
master and slave." 

" For all this there must be a cause. Can * the 
good tree' produce such bitter fruit.'' We earnestly 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

and affectionately entreat our friends and brethren 
everywhere, to pause and deeply reflect upon the con- 
sequences, before they commit themselves in any 
degree, by countenancing or entering into associations 
founded upon principles, or governed by motives, in- 
consistent with the mild, forbearing and peaceable 
spirit of the Gospel. We may rest assured, that all 
attempts to effect the liberation of slaves by coercive 
measures will be met, as they already have been, by 
a counteracting force, and, if persisted in, will finally 
lead to violence — perhaps to bloodshed." 

Testimony like this, from such a quarter, must be 
above all suspicion. It describes a state of things, in 
1842, which, no one pretends, has since been amelio- 
rated. 

Taking it for granted, then, that the practical 
working of abolition upon the condition of the black 
man, slave and free, has prejudiced his present and 
future interests, there is the fullest justification for say- 
ing, that the account, which abolition will have to set- 
tle, for wrong done, is with him, and not with the 
white man. That all this wrong has been wilfully 
done, is, of course, not charged. That true and sin- 
gle minded men are to be found, who are, at the same 
time abolitionists, is admitted. But, on the other 
hand, it is equally plain, that abolition has been made 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

an instrument in the hands of men who have been 
utterly regardless of the interests of the blacks ; and 
that their carelessness and indifference, and the igno- 
rance of the others, have brought about a state of 
things deeply to be deplored, and for which abolition 
is utterly powerless to make the smallest compensa- 
tion. Hereafter, and before the Judge of all things, 
should the black man, at that awful day, be the ac- 
cuser, it will be known, how far the plea of igno- 
rance will prevail, in mitigation of the punishment 
proper to those, whose ill-considered zeal has per- 
formed, what is here shown to have been, the office 
of modern abolition. A kindly feeling changed, too 
often, to a rancorous hate, — bonds tightened and 
privileges curtailed, — a present without permanence, 
and a future without hope, — are among the results for 
which abolition may yet have to answer before Him, 
who, if He permits such evil upon earth, holds, never- 
theless, the agents of it to a dread accountability.* 

* statistics furnish some not uninteresting- facts affecting- the practi- 
cal workings of modern abolition : and although where the population 
is large, and differences are small enough to be accounted for as in- 
accuracies, mathematical precision is not to be obtained from the 
pages of a census, yet reliable inferences may sometimes be drawn 
from the facts disclosed there. 

From 1790 to 1800 the free colored population increased 82. 2 per cent. 
" ISOOtolSlO " " " " 72.2 

" 1810 to 18-20 " " " " 25.25 " 

This remarkable change in the ratio of increase is difficult to ac- 

"2S' 



COLONIZATION AND AEOLITION. 

But it has been said, that these results are properly 
chargeable to Colonization, whose teachings, in regard 
to the impossibility of a general amalgamation, and 
the establishment of social and political equality, have 

count for, unless upon the supposition, that the numerous manumis- 
sions, which swelled the per centage in the two previous decades, were 
checked by some active cause; and the only one that occurs to us is, 
that, up to ISOS, there was a free importation of slaves from Africa; and 
that, a supply from this source being- cutoff during the decade following- 
1810, slaves acquired a fancy value during- that period, which affected 
manumissions. In the decade, ending- 1S30, the percentage increased to 
36.85, which shows that manumissions were again becoming frequent, 
on the supposition that 25.25 approximated to the natural increase. 
But, from 1830 to 1840, it fell to 20.9, and, from 1840 to 1850, to 10.96 ! 
Now, there is no question, that, during these last twenty years, the in- 
creased cultivation of cotton, and the corresponding increased value of 
slaves, affected manumissions. But, when we recollect that these 
twenty years embrace the life time of modern abolition, and recollect 
also the influence which abolition has upon the temper of the owners 
of slaves, upon whom the increase from manumissions depends, it is 
certainly not unfair to attribute to its agency, in some degree, the 
result here exhibited. At all events, we may, unquestionably, infer 
from the tables of the census, that abolition, with manumission its 
exclusive object, has had very scant success in promoting it ; affording 
another illustration of the fact, that the means are sometimes most 
potent to defeat the very end they propose to accomplish. 

There are other considerations worth noticing, connected with the 
above facts, to elaborate which would exceed the limits of the present 
note. While the increase of the free blacks, from 1840 to 1850, was 
but 10.9 per cent, the increase of the slaves, notwithstanding manu- 
missions, which are constantly going on, was 28.81 per cent. Making 
allowance for some free colored emigration to Canada and Liberia, 
and for a difference in the habits of the bond and free in regard to 
marriage, &c. &c., there is still a striking disproportion in the ratios 
of increase; from which it would seem, that the causes promoting 
increase, such as good food, clothing, shelter and medical attendance, 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

I produced that state of feeling between the races, 
I which has led to the conviction, if it really exists, that 
] a separation must take place.* This is attributing to 

I 

< and their accompaniment, health, were more operative with the slaves 
I than with the free people of color. A fair inference too, would appear 
j to be, that a general emancipation, such as the abolitionists are striving- 
for, would reduce the increase of the slaves from 28.81 to 10.96 per 
cent, with the prospect of a still further reduction. Indeed, the "ab- 
stract of the seventh census" looks as if it gave some probability to the 
assertion, heretofore often regarded as a random one, that the best way 
" to get rid of the colored population, would be to emancipate the 
slaves forthwith, when the whole race, in a generation or two, would 
wear out. But the object is not "to get rid of" this population, in the 
sense here intended. The object is to prevent its wearing out, by 
giving it a home, where, apart from all baleful influences, it may 
work out a noble destiny. 

* " We have been convinced, for a long time, that it was the wish 
of many of the leading men amongst us, both North and South— but 
principally at the South, where the scheme originated — a wish deemed 
worthy by them to be unceasingly labored for — that the condition of 
the free colored people should be rendered so undesirable, that the 
feelings of humane and conscientious owners would be so quenched 
or turned back that they would not emancipate; that many of the 
slaves would not greatly desire to enter that class; that, when com- 
pared with the other classes of our population, it would appear to de- 
crease, and that it would really increase but slowly ; and that, should 
the planners succeed in this, they, the free colored people, would, in 
the end, be compelled to emigrate from this country— already begin- 
ning to be called " the white man's home, and his exclusively, and 
that God had so appointed it," — and seek some other, where they 
would be at peace, and where, in consequence of their emigration, 
and of their emigration alone, the usual stimulants of men would be 
open to them and unrestrained."— J. G. Birney's Address to the Free 
Colored People of the United States. 

The address, from which the above is an extract, is written calmly 
and well, and, in the scope of it, is entitled to the candid considera- 



30 



I COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

; Colonization a power, which it has never possessed, | 

\ over the public mind. \ 

\ . . ... \ 

Until a comparatively recent period, until, it may | 

\ be said, the abolition agitation brought us into notice, 

I we were but of small consideration. An annual 

\ meeting of the American Colonization Society at 

I Washington, with a brief flourish of trumpets : a 

\ meeting of your Society here, drowned in the thunder 

; of the other anniversaries ; an occasional gathering of 

i the Maryland State Colonization Society, at Annapo- 

I lis, scarcely heard of beyond the limits of that ancient 

\ city ; three or four Colonization newspapers of very 

J meagre circulation ; the announcement, at rare inter- 

1 vals, of the sailing of an expedition to the coast; and, 

I 

I tion of every free colored man in America. It is eminently unjust to 

; the colonizationists as a body, it is true ; but this is a matter of small 

^ consequence. It attributes to them a state of thing-s, which is due to 
far other causes, as has been shewn in the text. The conclusions to 

\ which it arrives, however, are so just ; its recognition of the impossi- 

j bility of the social and political equality of the two races, here, no 

\ matter from what it proceeds, is so ample ; and its comparison of the 

) recommendations of Canada, the West Indies, and Liberia, as places 

! to which to emigrate, is so fair and satisfactory; and, withal, its style 

J is so clear, and strong and able, that it deserves to be placed amongst 

; the most important of the publications of the day, affecting this sub- 

\ ject : — the more especially, as it comes from one, who has, heretofore, 

I occupied the highest rank with the abolitionists. It is a frank aban- 

] donment, by an honest man, of a hopeless contest. Its only mistake 

; consists in attributing defeat to the labors of individuals, separately, 

; or associated ; whereas it is due, exclusively, to circumstances infi- 

> nitely beyond the power of man to control or aflfect. 



now and then, a notice, from some good-natured edi- 
tor, of the latest news from Liberia, — these, with the 
exertions of some half a dozen agents, — " rari nantes 
in gurgite vastoj^^ — constituted the " appliances and 
means to boot" of colonization, to which has been 
attributed the sentiment, fast becoming national, that 
the races are to separate. — It is idle to contend that 
such means were ever adequate to produce it. 

And yet, assuredly, the sentiment exists. To 
what, then, is it to be attributed? To what, but the 
mighty immigration, which has built across the At- 
lantic the bridge of boats, one abutment of which is 
in New York, and over which comes, with heavy 
tramp, in the shape of a vast multitude, power! 
Power, to add to our national strength, and raise, still 
higher, the fabric of our national renown ; — power, to 
construct our rail roads and canals; — power, before 
which the free black man must flee as from the wrath 
that is to come. Fold the sails of our commerce, — 
give employment and bread, at home, to the starving 
thousands of Europe, — take from us our great name 
of being an asylum for the oppressed of every land, — 
check the westward march of J;he star of empire, — 
render our country as inaccessible as a city fenced 
round about with walls, — and then, and not till then, 
if, even then, will you smother the sentiment above 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

referred to, and which Colonization has been so idly 
charged with having originated. 

It is not the white man's sentiment only : it is fast 
becoming the free black man's. He is becoming dis- 
abused of the idea, so studiously inculcated by our 
unfriends, and, once, so successfully, that coloniza- 
tionists are his enemies. He is beginning, now, to 
listen to the coming tramp. 

This question, as to whether the colonizationists 
or the abolitionists are the black man's truest friends, 
has often been discussed. The former have, gener- 
ally, been satisfied to refer the question to time to 
settle. The latter, whose system is agitation, have 
made it the subject of loud and vehement argument : 
and, as their avowed object was the emancipation of all 
the slaves in the country, and the establishment of 
social and poHtical equality between the free whites 
and free blacks, it was no wonder, that, for a season, 
they had the best of the dispute in the opinion of the 
free colored population. But these last were, them- 
selves, by their own conduct, all this time, settling 
the question in the other way. At all events, it is a 
singular coincidence, that, where Colonization was 
most active, there were they the most numerous ; and 
their numbers seemed to increase as Colonization 
thrived. For example ; Maryland, which has a free 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

colored population of 74,077, larger than that of any 
other State in the Union, has done ten times more than 
any other State in behalf of the cause. She began, by 
subscribing to it one thousand dollars per annum, as 
far back as 1826. In 1831, this was increased to ten 
thousand per annum, for twenty years. When circum- 
stances compelled her, in 1841, and for some years 
thereafter, to suspend the payment of the interest on 
her public debt, the Colonization subscription, upon 
which her Colony at Cape Palmas depended, was 
never in arrear for a single day: and, within the last 
month, the ten thousand dollars subscription having 
expired by limitation, it has been renewed, and made 
a charge upon the public treasury, instead of being a 
specific tax on the counties, as heretofore. Mary- 
land is the only State which has established a Colony 
of its own in Africa. On the other hand, few States 
have done less for Colonization, in proportion to their 
means, than New York and Ohio; and in no States 
has aboHtion had a greater influence than in these 
two; while, in Maryland, abolition has no party and 
but few friends. One would think, then, that, were 
the abolitionists right in this matter, the free colored 
people would flee from Maryland to take refuge in 
Ohio and New York. But the fact is, that in Mary- 
land, there are 74,077 free blacks to 418,590 whites ; 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

while, putting New York and Ohio together, they 
contain but 71,237 free blacks to 5,005,565 whites. 
These figures speak for themselves.* 

It is due, however, to frankness to say, that the 
change which has taken place in the minds of the free 
colored people, is, probably, in the main, independent 
of either colonizationists or abolitionists; but that it 
grows out of the fact, that they are beginning to feel, 
uncomfortably, the immigration already mentioned. 
Between 1810 and 1820, this was less than 12,000 per 
annum. From 1820 to 1830, it was but little more 
than 20,000. The next decade found it increased to 
about 78,000. The last years of the last decade saw 
it swell to 270,000 : and an estimate in the Herald, 
within a few days, makes the immigration into New 
\ York alone, at this present time, at the rate of 30,000 
i per month, or 360,000 per annum ; which would justify 
\ us in setting down the entire immigration, into all 
the ports of the country, at about half a million a year. 
\ Thus it is seen, that, during the earlier years of Abo- 

* In speaking thus of New York, the occasion is afforded to say, 
that one of the most able and conclusive arguments, in favor of Colon- 
ization, looking- at it as eminently philanthropic in its promised re- 
sults, both to America and to Africa, which has yet been made, is to 
be found in the speech of the Hon. J. W. Beekman, in the Senate of 
New York, on the 10th of March, 185-2. It covers, thoroughly, this 
branch of the subject. It is only to be regretted, that, where the argu- 
ment was so able, the legislative action was not correspondent. 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

lition and Colonization, there was no such pressure 
upon the free colored people as now exists. During this 
period, the free colored people regarded emigration as 
a matter of unbiased choice ; and finding themselves 
comfortably fixed in this country, buoyed up at times I 
with the promises of social equality held out by the \ 
abolitionists, they looked rather to places of profit and \ 
honor in America, than in a remote land, with which | 
they had no sympathies, and where civil government 
was in its infancy: nor was it until the increasing \ 
pressure, whose statistics have been given, roused | 
them from their delusion, that any change appears to 
have taken place in their opinions. 

As illustrations of what is here said, — the speaker 
was called upon, within the last month, by a colored 
man of intelligence and respectabiUty in Baltimore, 
who wished to emigrate to Liberia. He was worth, 
at least, sixteen thousand dollars, and in a thriving 
business. He stated, that the immediate cause of his 
I visit was seeing, in a daily paper, that the immigration 
I into New York, during the preceding week, had been 

\ nine thousand. — This, to use his own words, "was a 

\ ■ 

I warning to the colored people to clear out." Again, 



within a few hours, a colored man at the hotel at 
which the speaker stays here, shewed him the consti- 
tution of a society to purchase land in Liberia, and 



COLONIZATION AND AECLITION. 

make preparations there for the comfortable reception 
of its members. This man gave, as the immediate 
cause of his interest in the subject, the reflections 
suggested by the turning out of all the colored ser- 
vants of a large hotel in New York, during the last 
winter, and the substitution of white ones in their 
place. Instances like these are of every-day occur- 
rence. 

The foreign immigration into the United States is 
not likely to diminish. Were it not for the immense 
extent of our uninhabited lands, its pressure upon the 
free blacks would be that of iron upon iron, inelastic 
and inflexible ; and the consequences would be mise- 
rable to anticipate. But the constant drain upon the 
white population of the Atlantic States, to supply the 
demand west of the mountains, affords, and may 
continue to afford, for years to come, breathing space 
for both races in their accustomed homes. It is this 
drain which makes the pressure spoken of an elastic 
one; a pressure that suggests, rather than compels, the 
removal of the free blacks, — which gives them time to 
make preparation for themselves or for their chil- 
dren, — which will allow those unfit to emigrate to end 
their lives here, in peace and in comfort, — a pressure 
adapted to the occasion, and regulated by a far higher 
power than man's, in mercy : but a pressure, nevcrthe- 



1790, 


4.18 


1800, 


4.29 


1810, 


4.25 


1820, 


4.44 


1830, 


4..52 


1840, 


4.93 


1850, 


5.4 



white gain, 


.11 


colored gain 


.04 


white gain. 


.19 


" 


.18 


" 


.41 


<« 


.47 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

less, constant and increasing, and whose suggestions 
have the solemnity and the force of doom.* 

* The " Abstract of the Seventh Census" is not without its interest in 
this connection. It shews the influence upon cur entire population of 
the foreign immigration, and the periods at which this has been most 
potent. 

The proportion between the white and the colored population, bond 
and free, at the first census, in 1790, was as 4.18 to 1— that is, there 
were four hundred and eighteen whites to one hundred colored per- 
sons. The following table exhibits the successive decades in this 
respect: 

rhite to 1. colored. 

" 1. 
" 1. 

" 1. 
«' 1. 

" 1. 
The colored gain at 1810 is accounted for by the acquisition of Louisi- | 
ana, and probably also, because, the slave trade, ceasing, by law, | 
in 1808, a large importation took place in the early part of the decade, ^ 
in view of that fact. The increase of the slave population between \ 
1800 and 1810 was 33.4 per cent. The average increase of the six \ 
decades from 1790 to 1850 was 28.93.— the next greatest to 1810 being \ 
30.6, in 1830, and the least being 23.08 in 1840. ! 

In the four decades, ending at 1830, the gain in the rate of increase j 
of the white over the colored population, bond and free, was but .34,— ; 
i while in the two decades, ending at 1850, it was .88 : but then, the J 
j total number of immigrants, up to 1830— forty years, had been only \ 
; 437,979— while in the next twenty years, up to 1850, it was 2,321,350. \ 
I A calculation in "The Abstract" shews the whole number of | 

I immigrants and their descendants, in 1850, to have been 4,350,934. i 
\ Deducting this from the total white population in 1850— 19,630,738— and 
\ there remains 15,279,804 as the white population of 1850, irrespective i 
of immigration : and the colored population of 1850, being 3,632,750, 1 
( it appears, that, but for the immigration, the proportion between the } 

white and the colored would have been as 4.2 of the former to 1. of the 
I latter, which is almost identical with the proportion in 1790. I 

3^. 



I COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. ] 

\ The true light in which to regard Colonization \ 

i is to look upon it as difFering, in no-wise, from the | 

I colonizations that have preceded it, — from that, for \ 

\ \ 

The chang-e, then, in the proportions of the races, which works a \ 
I corresponding- chang-e in the comfort and prospects of the weaker, is \ 
. due, mainly, if not entirely, to the immigration, as has been stated in \ 
I the text : and the ratio of the increase of this immigration being a \ 
\ constantly and rapidly accelerating one,— as shewn by the table ! 
; above,— the result insisted on, the emigration of the weaker,— \ 
'■■ instead of being a matter of opinion only, acquires the certainty of 
demonstration, when connected with the impossibility of amalgama- 
S tion and the consequent strife of caste. 

; The above is the statement most favorable to the abolition side of 

; the argument, too; because it is founded on the increase of the entire 
i colored population— and looks at the question as if both bond and free 
; were free, which is the result at which modern abolition aims. 
> But the argument becomes far stronger, when the comparison is 

J limited, according to the fact, to the whites and the free blacks — 
\ between whom the competition, that is to drive the latter to the wall, 
\ actually takes place: for, while, between 1840 and 1850, the increase 
; of the whites was to that of the entire colored population as 38.23 to 
26.41, it was to the increase of the free blacks as 38.28 to 10.96! 

And yet, even this is more favorable to the free blacks, than the true 

: condition of things : for it supposes the free colored population to be 

scattered in equal proportions over the entire country, which is very 

far from being the case. Of the whole free colored population of 1S50 — 

amounting to 428,661— ten States contained 349,677; and among these 

States were New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, the ratio of 

the increase of whose white population very far exceeds that of the free 

blacks, whose number in these States is 136,348, while that of the white 

population is 8,241,656. 

; In any aspect of the case, then, even the most favorable, "The 

I Abstract of the Seventh Census" corroborates most fully the views of 

; the text. The whites are becoming stronger and stronger; the free 

\ blacks weaker and weaker, and between the two there may one day be 

a strife, without compromise, for bread. 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

instance, which brought our ancestors to America. 
Thus viewed, the whole subject becomes a very simple 
one. The emigrants will be forthcoming, when it 
becomes their interest to emigrate ; not because those, 
who have prepared a new home for them, have done 
aught to force or accelerate their departure, but be- 
cause circumstances, beyond all human control, and 
for which they have provided, compel it. Like other 
emigrants, they will pay their own expenses, or have 
them paid by those of their friends or relatives who 
are already established in comfort in Liberia. When 
the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, they had to conquer 
a home from the Indians, and subsistence from the 
unproductive soil and unfriendly climate. The pil- 
grims to Liberia find houses prepared for them, in a 
congenial climate and upon an exhaustless soil. The 
mother country of the first yielded independence at 
the point of the bayonet and the mouth of the cannon. 
The mother country of the last educated them for 
independence, and gave it before it was asked even. 
The first came to a continent covered with forests, 
and sparsely peopled with hunters and warriors, 
affording no market for the products of civilization, 
save to a very limited extent. The last go to a conti- 
nent swarming with people, cultivating the soil, living 
in regular communities, themselves manufacturers in 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

\ gold, and cloth, and iron, — and as thirsty for all that 
I the loom and the anvil, in civilized hands, can pro- 
duce, as their sands are thirsty for the dew. Com- 1 
merce was an incident with the first. It is a necessity | 
of the last. Where the first Colonization referred to, 
\ therefore, had one chance of success, the last has | 
many chances. Through its agency, the market of \ 
Africa is to be opened to relieve the glut which now 
\ exists in other markets, — and, thus, independent even 
; of Colonization, except as subsidiary, a commerce 
will grow up, which will do for the free blacks of 
\ America, what the commerce between this country and 
I Europe is now doing for the Irish, the Germans, and 
\ many others. 

1 The entire free colored population of the United 

; States, is but 428,661 — not a year's work to remove, 
\ for the emigrant ships now plying between the old 
> world and the new. The entire colored population, 
slave and free, is 3,633,150, or less than seven years' 
I work for the same ships, were both slaves and free 
\ ready for removal. It is most true, that there is an 
: increase of both going on daily; and that the figures 
'; of the last census, here used, are already inaccurate. 
; This affects the question of time, only, however. For 
I illustration sake, we have spoken of years in connec- 
\ tion with the subject. Such results as are contem- 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. i 

plated, however, are the work of generations. But i 
if the principle, on which the results are to depend, is \ 
constant in its operation, time must bring them about. \ 
The circumstances which exist, in this case, to j 
quicken time, have already been noticed. | 

Time and circumstances, then, using the agency 
of the same Colonization, which has been going on 
from the earliest period, throughout the world, may be j 
safely relied upon to separate, quietly and naturally, | 
the two free races now inhabiting this country ; tak- | 
ing to Africa the free colored population, and estab- \ 
lishing them under a government of their own, i 
modeled after ours, in the only land where, thanks to '< 
a climate, fatal to the white man, they will, forever, be 
free from his encroachments, — and leaving us, here, 
in America, with a homogeneous free population of 
one color, with common interests, feelings and des- I 
tiny. ! 

To bring all this about, a mighty enginery, not of ; 
man's contrivance, but growing out of the fitness of \ 
things, in which man's feehngs, passions, virtues and \ 
interests, all perform their parts, is in motion, resist- j 
less motion. Whether it shall move smoothly, or \- 
"grate harsh thunder," depends upon that public | 
favor, to invoke, and secure which, meetings like | 
the present are convened. Hence, Colonization still \ 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 



labors, even after the Republic has been established, 
and circumstances are sufficient for the rest. 

The remarkable concurrence of these circum- 
stances is by no means the least satisfactory of the 
assurances, which give to colonizationists confidence 
in their cause. When the meeting was held, with a 
reference to which this address commenced, the popu- 
lation of the United States did not exceed 9,000,000, 
and in 1820, the total number of emigrants and their 
descendants, was but 359,000. The whites and the 
free colored population lived in perfect harmony and 
trustful confidence. There were neither circum- 
stances nor instigators to produce ill will : and, to the 
nine hundred and ninety-nine in the thousand, there 
was no reason apparent why this state of things 
should not last forever; — and, hence, the very dis- 
crepancies of opinion in regard to this cause, that 
have already been adverted to. The miracle of the 
cotton-gin was of recent date. The manufactures, 
it so marvellously quickened, were in their early in- 
fancy. The steam engine, instead of being the com- 
) mon tool which it has since become, was of rare 
employment. In 1818, there were but four steam- 
I boats on the North River. The rail road and the 
I locomotive were unknown : and ocean steam naviga- 
tion, and its predecessors, the New York packet 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

ships, were not even the visions of a dream. Hand 
labor was the labor of the world. Since that period, 
our population has increased to 25,000,000. The 
immigrants and their descendants were estimated, in 
1850, at 4,350,000. Steam has wrought its count- 
less wonders. Not only has it taken the place of 
hand labor in a multitude of instances, but it has 
facilitated intercommunication, until labor has been 
deprived of the protection, which the trouble and 
expense of transporting laborers from place to place 
once afforded it. Human affairs are moving on with 
a velocity that is almost fearful. Lifetimes are being 
lived, so far as events are concerned, in single days. 
Strife for pleasure, strife for profit, strife for power, 
characterize each hour of present existence. Strife, 
strife, it is all strife ! and woe to the weakest now. 
If this state of things continues for a generation, — 
and what is there to change it, — and there remain in 
this country, which is the most vivid illustration of the 
wonderful activity referred to, the two races of free- 
men so often mentioned, what is to be the fate of the 
weakest, if amalgamation is impossible, in the pres- 
ence of a population which increases in such rapid 
numbers? But while population thus increases, and 
has thus increased in the last five and thirty years, 
the manufactures of civilization have increased more 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

rapidly, in proportion to the existing demand for them : 
and, now, that the known markets of the world are 
glutted, the demand is for new ones. Africa is the 
greatest of those remaining to be opened. The 
English, at Sierra Leone and up the Niger, the Dutch, 
the French, the Portuguese, have tried in vain to 
penetrate it. It can be reached but by one agency; 
and that is, through the colonies of civilized emigrants 
from the United States, which, during the period here 
referred to. Colonization has been quietly engaged in 
planting upon the coast. Had this demand for mar- 
kets existed, a quarter of a century ago, it could not 
have been thus supplied. Had this swarming activity 
existed, a quarter of a century ago, there would have 
been no escape for the free black man from the pres- 
sure that it created. Had the abolition excitement 
raged at its utmost, a quarter of a century ago, no 
such solution, as we now have of the problem, growing 
out of the existence of the two races in this country, 
with no possibility of amalgamation, would have pre- 
sented itself. But it has been ordered otherwise. 
The exigencies referred to have become apparent only 
when the means of answering them have been supplied, 
after a preparation, perfected by the very obstacles, 
which, to human eyes, threatened to defeat it. While 
active progress has characterized all other things, 



COLONIZATION AND ABOLITION. 

Colonization, which was, in the end, to be the hand- 
maid of this activity, has been prosecuted slowly and 
painfully; until now, all circumstances concurring, the 
nation, which it has built up, is ready to enter upon 
its functions, as a powerful agent in the progress of 
human affairs, and, in the order of Providence, fulfil- 
ino- the destiny in store for it, when the slave trade 
was permitted, that Africa, through the agency of its 
horrors, even, might, when the descendants of the 
captives returned to her, be brought within the pale of 
civilization, under the blessed light of the Christian 
dispensation. 



